1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns an integrated electronic franking machine. It applies in particular to automatic mail processing systems.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The document EP 298774 discloses an electronic franking machine designed to enable users to frank one or more mail items, usually a very large number of mail items, very quickly by printing on each mail item a stamp representing the amount to be paid by the sender.
FIG. 1 shows an electronic franking machine of this kind comprising an open path 5 defined by two parallel planes between which a mail item is fed. A franking head 8 carried by a base 11 is disposed over the open path to print a stamp on the mail item 7 facing it. The franking head 8 is controlled from a conventional keypad 9 through electronic circuits. This machine is for processing large volumes of mail and further comprises a mail item conveyor. The conveyor comprises rollers and counter-rollers disposed along the open path and rotated in opposite directions to "sandwich" each mail item and feed it to the franking head from a module for storing and feeding mail items to be franked.
The electronic franking machine disclosed in the document EP 298774 has the following drawbacks:
the mail item conveyor and the franking head are noisy in operation,
if a jam occurs on the open path the franking machine must be demounted to remove one of the plates defining the open path and free the mail item obstructing it, and
it can cause accidents because there is nothing to prevent the operator's hand being trapped in the mail item drive mechanisms, in particular between the rollers and counter-rollers, or from being injured by a mail item moving along the open path.
One object of the invention is to overcome the above drawbacks.